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Leofranc Holford-Strevens (born 19 May 1946) is an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
classical scholar Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
, an authority on the works of
Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, or ...
, and a former reader for the
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
. He is married to the American musicologist
Bonnie J. Blackburn Bonnie Jean Blackburn (born July 15, 1939, Albany, New York) is an American musicologist. Career She graduated in 1970 from the University of Chicago with a PhD. She studied with Edward Lowinsky and Howard Mayer Brown. She was lecturer at ...
.


Career

After Southgate County Grammar School, in 1963 Holford-Strevens went up to Christ Church,
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, to read Literae Humaniores (a form of classical studies), and stayed on to obtain his
doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
there with a dissertation entitled ''Select Commentary on Aulus Gellius, Book 2'' (1971). In 1971 Holford-Strevens started work with the Oxford University Press as a graduate proof reader and later rose to become consultant scholar-editor there. His first book-length publication, ''Aulus Gellius'', was published in 1988. Holford-Strevens's book was hailed by
Hugh Lloyd-Jones Sir Peter Hugh Jefferd Lloyd-Jones FBA (21 September 1922 – 5 October 2009məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ..., in 1982, and spent his last 27 years at their home in Wellesley. Major publicat ...
as a masterpiece characterized by a "sharp critical intelligence". More generally, Lloyd-Jones stated that Holford-Strevens was one of the most learned men in England, comparing him to
Sebastiano Timpanaro Sebastiano Timpanaro (September 5, 1923 in Parma – November 26, 2000 in Florence) was an Italian classical philologist, essayist, and literary critic. He was also a long-time Marxist who made important contributions to left-wing political ...
, who also managed to combine a career in a publishing house with world-class contributions to scholarship. Numerous anecdotes circulate concerning his mannerisms, from his being barred from a college dining room on account of what were called his "mediaeval eating manners" to his ability to navigate streets while buried in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...
'', and yet managing to miss running into lampposts. Another anecdote suggests that
W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
once called on dons entertaining him in Oxford to stop chatting, explaining that he wished to listen to Holford-Strevens's conversation as he held forth in another corner of the room. By the time of his retirement in 2011, Holford-Strevens had proof-read or edited over 500 books, and in retirement he is still active and is working on a new commentary on Gellius. He lives in St Bernard's Road, Oxford. In 2019, his two-volumes critical edition of Aulus Gellius' ''Attic Nights'' was published. His work as a copy-editor was recognized in 2016 by the award of the British Academy President's Medal for outstanding service to the cause of the humanities and social sciences.


Languages

Holford-Strevens's interest in languages was stimulated by his father, a company secretary, who introduced him at an early age to French, Spanish, and German. He learnt Russian as a young boy out of curiosity when the Sputnik was launched in 1957, desiring to match a classmate who wished to know the tongue of the people who managed the technological feat. According to Sir Keith Thomas, his ability to read forty languages made him a legendary figure at Oxford. He reads all the
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
.


Selected publications

* ''Aulus Gellius,'' London: Duckworth, 1988.
'The Harmonious Pulse,'
Classical Quarterly 43 (02):475- (1993)
'Her Eyes Became Two Spouts': Classical Antecedents of Renaissance Laments,'
in Early Music Vol. 27, No. 3, Laments (Aug. 1999), pp. 379–393 : Oxford University Press * 'Sophocles at Rome,' in Jasper Griffin (ed.),''Sophocles Revisited. Essays presented to Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones,'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999 pp. 219–59. * with B. Blackburn, ''The Oxford Companion to the Year,'' (Oxford, 1999); * with B. Blackburn, ''The Oxford Book of Days,'' (Oxford, 2000).
'Getting away with murder: The literary and forensic fortune of two Roman Exempla,'
in International Journal of the Classical Tradition Vol.7, Issue 4, June 2001 pp. 489–514
'Humanism and the language of music treatises,'
''Renaissance Studies,'' Volume 15, Issue 4, pages 415–449, December 2001
'Horror vacui in Lucretian biography,'
''Leeds International Classical Studies,'' 1.1 2002
''Gellius: An Antonine Scholar and his Achievement,''
Oxford University Press, 2003. Revised ed. of Holford-Strevens, 1988 * with
Amiel Vardi Amiel Vardi is an Israeli classical scholar, an authority on Latin literature, and an activist on behalf of Palestinian rights. A native-born Jerusalemite, he teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and lives in the German Colony neighbour ...
(eds.), ''The Worlds of Aulus Gellius,'' Oxford University Press 2004 ** 'Recht as een Palmen-Bohm and Other Facets of Gellius' Medieval and Humanistic Reception,' in L.Holford-Strevens, A. Vardi (2004) pp. 249–81. * ''The History of Time: A Very Short Introduction,'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
'Sirens in Antiquity and the Middle Ages,'
in Linda Austern, Inna Naroditskaya (eds.) ''Music of the Sirens,''
Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...
, 2006 pp. 25–50
'Selinus or Athens?,'
The Classical Quarterly ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
(New Series), Volume 59 Issue 2 December 2009, pp 624–626
'Church Politics and the Computus: From Milan to the Ends of the Earth,'
in ''The Easter controversy of late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages: Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on the science of Computus in Ireland and Europe,'' pages 1–20, 2011
'Fa mi la mi so la:The Erotic Implications of Solmization syllables,'
Bonnie J. Blackburn, Laurie Stras, (eds.) ''Eroticism in Early Modern Music,''
Ashgate Publishing Ashgate Publishing was an academic book and journal publisher based in Farnham (Surrey, United Kingdom). It was established in 1967 and specialised in the social sciences, arts, humanities and professional practice. It had an American office in ...
2015 pp. 43–58


Citations


References

* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Holford-Strevens, Leofranc 1946 births 20th-century scholars Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford English classical scholars Living people Oxford University Press people People educated at Southgate School Recipients of the President's Medal (British Academy)